arXiv · 1911.10545
Search for heavy neutral leptons decaying into muon-pion pairs in the MicroBooNE detector
Abstract
We present upper limits on the production of heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) decaying to $μπ$ pairs using data collected with the MicroBooNE liquid-argon time projection chamber (TPC) operating at Fermilab. This search is the first of its kind performed in a liquid-argon TPC. We use data collected in 2017 and 2018 corresponding to an exposure of $2.0 \times 10^{20}$ protons on target from the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam, which produces mainly muon neutrinos with an average energy of $\approx 800$ MeV. HNLs with higher mass are expected to have a longer time-of-flight to the liquid-argon TPC than Standard Model neutrinos. The data are therefore recorded with a dedicated trigger configured to detect HNL decays that occur after the neutrino spill reaches the detector. We set upper limits at the $90\%$ confidence level on the element $\lvert U_{\mu4}\rvert^2$ of the extended PMNS mixing matrix in the range $\lvert U_{\mu4}\rvert^2<(6.6$-$0.9)\times 10^{-7}$ for Dirac HNLs and $\lvert U_{\mu4}\rvert^2<(4.7$-$0.7)\times 10^{-7}$ for Majorana HNLs, assuming HNL masses between $260$ and $385$ MeV and $\lvert U_{e 4}\rvert^2 = \lvert U_{τ4}\rvert^2 = 0$.
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P. Abratenko, M. Alrashed, R. An, J. Anthony, J. Asaadi, A. Ashkenazi, S. Balasubramanian, B. Baller, C. Barnes, G. Barr, V. Basque, S. Berkman, A. Bhanderi, A. Bhat, M. Bishai, A. Blake, T. Bolton, L. Camilleri, D. Caratelli, I. Caro Terrazas, R. Castillo Fernandez, F. Cavanna, G. Cerati, Y. Chen, E. Church, D. Cianci, E. O. Cohen, J. M. Conrad, M. Convery, L. Cooper-Troendle, J. I. Crespo-Anadón, M. Del Tutto, D. Devitt, L. Domine, K. Duffy, S. Dytman, B. Eberly, A. Ereditato, L. Escudero Sanchez, J. J. Evans, R. S. Fitzpatrick, B. T. Fleming, N. Foppiani, D. Franco, A. P. Furmanski, D. Garcia-Gamez, S. Gardiner, V. Genty, D. Goeldi, S. Gollapinni, O. Goodwin, E. Gramellini, P. Green, H. Greenlee, L. Gu, W. Gu, R. Guenette, P. Guzowski, P. Hamilton, O. Hen, C. Hill, G. A. Horton-Smith, A. Hourlier, E. -C. Huang, R. Itay, C. James, J. Jan de Vries, X. Ji, L. Jiang, J. H. Jo, R. A. Johnson, J. Joshi, Y. -J. Jwa, G. Karagiorgi, W. Ketchum, B. Kirby, M. Kirby, T. Kobilarcik, I. Kreslo, R. LaZur, I. Lepetic, Y. Li, A. Lister, B. R. Littlejohn, S. Lockwitz, D. Lorca, W. C. Louis, M. Luethi, B. Lundberg, X. Luo, A. Marchionni, S. Marcocci, C. Mariani, J. Marshall, J. Martin-Albo, D. A. Martinez Caicedo, K. Mason, A. Mastbaum, N. McConkey, V. Meddage. 2020-02-12. Search for heavy neutral leptons decaying into muon-pion pairs in the MicroBooNE detector. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.101.052001
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